BANGKOK, 13 February 2009 (IRIN) – East Asia is a major source of human trafficking, with victims dispersed in more than 20 countries, sometimes as far away as South Africa, a UN report has found.

And while East Asian and other governments are mobilising against human trafficking, much more needs to be done, states the 2009 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“Victims from this region, when compared with victims from other regions, tend to be shipped very, very far away,” said the UNODC representative for East Asia and the Pacific, Gary Lewis, at the report’s Asia-Pacific launch on 13 February.

“In more than 20 countries on other parts of the planet, we found a reasonably significant number of victims from this region. That did not characterise the export of victims from any other part of the world to the same degree,” he said.

The report is the first global assessment of the world’s response to human trafficking. It was written with criminal justice and victim assistance data from 155 countries and territories from 2003 to 2007, and compiled in 2007-2008.

The report states that East Asian trafficking victims were found in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. IRIN NEWS